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Braveheart Lance Naik Hanumanthappa who was battling for life at the Army’s Research & Referral hospital breathed his last on Thursday morning.
“Really sorry to inform everyone that LNk Hanumanthappa is no more. He breathed his last breath at 11:45 a.m. today,” Army officials said on Thursday.
He was admitted at R&R hospital on Tuesday morning and has been on ventilator since. His medical condition steadily deteriorated due to multiple organ failure despite best efforts put by a team of medical experts.
The soldier of 19 Madras regiment was rescued alive on Monday night after being buried under 35 feet of snow for six days. He was flown to Delhi on Tuesday in an Air Force aircraft. The avalanche had burried their camp on February 3.
From a farmer's family
Hanumanthappa’s family, wife and daughter, hails from Koppal in Karnataka. He belongs to a farming family of Betadur village in Kundagol taluk of Dharwad district. The village, mainly an agrarian one, has in recent years seen around six sons of the soil joining the Army.
The youngest in the family, Lance Naik Koppad always wanted to join the Army. He came up the hard way, attending high school at Aralikatti village by walking 6 km every day. And, despite being rejected thrice in the Army recruitment rallies at Belagavi, Dharwad and Gadag, he kept on trying and finally managed to get into the 19 Madras Regiment 14 years ago.
Four years ago, Lance Naik Koppad married Mahadevi (Jayashri) and has a two-year-old daughter, Netra. His last visit to Betadur was six months ago. His earnings helped build a house in the government-allotted site in the village.
Just a day before the avalanche, he had called his family, “He had enquired about all of us,” said his eldest brother, Govindappa, who left for Delhi on Tuesday.
Meanwhile the bodies of nine other soldiers which have been recovered from the site are waiting to be the airlifted from Siachen. Officials said that bad weather has held up movement.
(With inputs from Girish Pattanashetti)
The article was earlier published in www.thehindu.com
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